Taipei Travel: Fangirling at Meteor Garden’s Ying De University

November 5, 2016

[UPDATE 04/14/2018: Hello! I’ve been receiving messages telling me that the National Taiwan University wasn’t used as filming location for Meteor Garden. I doubtthis post is popular enough to drive hordes of MG fans to the university just to take photos. But if my post, in some way, has contributed to that, then I apologize. Taiwan has recently been visa-free for many countries, and that might have contributed to the influx of tourist? I’m not sure.

In my defense, I did some research before going and some blogs did say that the university was used for filming. I’m still not sure what’s true and what’s not, so if you plan to visit the school, then please note that there’s a likely chance that it really wasn’t used for filming. Thank you and apologies for the confusion. 🙂

UPDATE 07/21/2018: A friend recently visited Taiwan and came back with proofs that the university was indeed used as one of the filming locations of the first Meteor Garden. She visited the exact spot used for this scene, and yes, it was in NTU. :)]

It was May 5, 2003 when a local TV channel first aired Meteor Garden. I was 12 and prepubescent and was deeply attracted to the four Taiwanese boys who ruled Ying De University. So when people asked me why I decided to travel to Taiwan, I wasn’t joking when I said it’s because I’m a Meteor Garden fan.

Surely, San Cai, Hwa Ze Lei and Pineapple Head no longer roamed the grounds of the fictional Ying De, but there’s no stopping us from visiting National Taiwan University, one of the campuses used to film Meteor Garden. It’s in Taipei and easily accessible from the subway, that’s why we opted for this instead of going all the way to Chiayi County for National Chung Cheng University.

It was our last day in the country when we visited National Taiwan University. After spending the morning at Yeh Liu Geopark in New Taipei City, we rode a provincial bus en route to Taipei that passes through NTU. It was a long and bumpy ride, and we almost fell off our seats a couple of times. We almost missed our stop, too, because we all fell asleep!

Since we had a flight to catch that night, we could only spare an hour to roam around the grounds of F4’s Ying De University.

I didn’t know what to expect before we got there. We had no plans on what to do once we get there, because I couldn’t find enough information online.

Will we blocked at the entrance? Will I remember any scene from the drama?

Those are just some of the questions on my mind when we got off the bus. To our relief, it was an open university. It was a Sunday and not a lot of students were around. Still, there were no guards to avoid nor gates we had to trespass to get inside the campus.

Our first thought when we got inside was that it looked a lot like our beloved UPLB! Marianne, Cherith, Dex and I are all UPLB alumni, and we cannot help but be reminded of our alma matter. I posted a photo of the long driveway and college friends thought it was Elbi. I would have thought so, too, if I didn’t know better.

Also, it’s where F4 first appeared in Meteor Garden! Remember the car scene in the first episode?

I honestly cannot remember much from Meteor Garden, but Marianne is obviously the bigger fangirl (haha!). She kept pointing places where some scene happened. I should have watched Meteor Garden before my Taiwan trip.

We weren’t the only tourists that day, too. There were other people walking around and taking pictures. Some tourists were even on bike! But I have to admit that we were probably the only non-locals touring the campus. I bet they’re not there because Meteor Garden was filmed at NTU.

Prior to the trip, I read online that even non-Meteor Garden fans will adore the place because it’s a beautiful campus. And I wholeheartedly agree. It was a big campus with a soccer field, tennis and basketball courts, and a lake!

An hour wasn’t enough to explore the whole campus. We only followed the trails and didn’t get to enter any building. I wanted to but we were pressed for time.

Bicycle seems to be the main mode of transportation because there were more students riding a bike than walking. I was particularly fond of this one moment when a group of college balls all riding bicycles passed by us and they were singing Adele’s “Hello.” It honestly looks like a scene out of an anime or a coming-of-age Taiwanese move (see: Blue Gate Crossing).

Thank you to Cherith and Dex for cajoling our fangirl tendencies. Marianne and I first bonded over our love for Zai Zai (Multiply days, heh), and it was exciting that we got to realize our teenage dreams! After all, it was also our love for Meteor Garden that prompted the trip to Taiwan.

I hope I made my 12-year-old self proud. I thought growing up and adulting would turn me into a corporate robot who only thinks of working, paying the bills, and being super serious about life. Though I worry about the usual adult stuff, I’m quite glad that I’m still passionate about my hobbies (watching Asian dramas and movies, lol) and likes (chinito boys, double lol). I’m also still very silly.

Our winter trip to Taiwan was perfect in all levels, and this detour to NTU is just the cherry on top. But still, I’m so happy that I got to visit Ying De University!

Directions to National Taiwan University

From Taipei Main Station, drop off at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall Station (Red Line) to transfer to the Green Line.

Gongguan Station is just three stops from Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall Stn.

Via bus: There are many buses that pass through NTU, and the nearest bus stops are the ones that stop at MRT Gongguan, Gongguan, NTU, NTU Sports Center, and NTU Science and Technology Department. Below are just some of the buses you can take when going to the campus.

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Comments

Was Trying to look for a Bataan day trip When i saw this entry! Our taiwan trip Is approaching and The inner Daomingsi fangirl in me wants to explore the area too! Thanks for thE pretty photos and very Clear narRative! You made me feel like i’m with you in this travel! Just a question, do you know if there are bike renTals along the area? I missed biking around the acad oval in upd and i wanna relive my freshie days (in taiwan this time, as if i were shan cai)

Hi nxxmxx! I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 I’m not sure about the bike rentals, though, because we didn’t explore the area around the university. I do know that there are bike rentals in Ximending, but that’s quite far from NTU already. 🙁 But I do hope you experience being Shan Cai for a day haha 🙂

there are bike rentals near each MRT station. You don’t have to return them back to where you got them. Just put them to any bike rental station after you used them. You can basically bike around the city without having to worry about going back to where you started. 🙂

Isn’t Ying De university in National Chung Cheng University (Chiayi County)? I really hope it’s not in NTU because if it is, waaaah I stayed there for 3 weeks without realizing it’s where san chai and F4 had their shoot. T.T

Hello! I saw your comment about it is always open, we are planning to go there this october and i am wondering if they are still open even if it is sunday. do you also know the bus 106 from the train station to nccu? thank you so much.

Hi. great pictures. I’m happy more filipinos appreciate Taiwan. However, if NTU, is the Ying De University, I’m not sure about that. . I’m not sure if there are any scenes in Meteor Garden that were shot in NTU. The Ying De University where most of the iconic scenes were, like the locker room scene, the bridge, etc. . are actually in National Chung Cheng University in Chiayi. .

Hello Rob! While researching and planning for the trip, I read that National Chung Cheng University was the main school used for the drama, but NTU was also used for some parts. Chiayi was too far for us to visit that’s why we opted to just visit NTU. 🙂 If we got it wrong, then that sucks for us haha 🙂

As an alumnus of national Taiwan university, I can tell you surely that the metro garden was never filmed in this campus. the film was filmed in national chiayi university , located in chiayi county of southern Taiwan 200km from Taipei . Please don’t get wrong when you are planing to visit Taiwan

Hi Steven! I researched about and a lot of blogs were pointing to NTU and Chung Chen University as filming locations, with the latter as the main university used for the drama. I’ll look more into it, though. Thanks for the heads up!

Hello Janey. Nice blog. However, this blog post of yours creates confusion for MG fans. My friend is an alumna of NTU and she swore that NTU was never used as a filming site for Meteor Garden. As a fan of the series, I know that there are three universities used for filming: National Chung Cheng University, Tamkang University and Taipei University in Tamsui. It’s time that we correct those people taking pictures in NTU claiming that it’s a Meteor Garden location when it’s not.

Hi Sari! Thanks for the heads up. I’ll make a clear disclaimer about it on the post. I’m not sure about the effect of my post, since I just also saw it on other blogs before I visited that it was used as a filming site.

There are two universities that was used in Meteor Garden. One is the National Taiwan University located in Taipei and the other is National Chung Cheng University in Chiaiyi. The latter is a bit far from Taipei… 😊

Hello, I'm Janey. I'm a fangirl, a bookworm, a dreamer and a wannabe writer. I'm a couch potato and a traveler rolled into one. This is my lame attempt to be a travel blogger based in the PH, but honestly, this is just an archive of my daily reality.